Hailadu

History always exists somewhere between coincidence and inevitability. In 789 BC, Yin Jifu of the Western Zhou “launched a fierce campaign against the Xianyun and reached Taiyuan,” defeating the Rong and Di. In 1873, Zuo Zongtang of the Qing defeated Hui forces amid “a murderous air that filled the sky in the third month of the fifth year of Tongzhi.” Both peoples were exiled to the vast, desolate plains of Taiyuan...

Hailadu, at the foot of the Liupan Mountains, was hailed by a peerless conqueror as a beautiful plateau. Amid the ravages of war during the Tongzhi era, a handful of exiles reenact a lost chapter of the true history of Xihai-Guyuan.

These pages reveal strange folk customs, the twisted depths of human nature, and historical truths that defy easy definition...

Sometimes history is painful to read closely. When you finish, all that remains is a sigh...